ANIMATED
""French Roast""
Despite being set in a Parisian coffee shop, fluency in French is unnecessary to gather that the protagonist of ""French Roast"" is an uptight jerk. He blithely ignores both the server waiting on him and the beggar tapping at his table for change. But when he discovers he has forgotten his wallet, his morning with the finance section becomes a waiting game as he continues to order coffee, proudly refusing to admit that he cannot pay for it. Part commentary on the pride of the upper-middle class, part sitcom scenario, ""French Roast"" plays on the desperation people can have to keep up appearances, often to the point of wackiness.
—Mark Riechers
""Granny O'Grimm's
Sleeping Beauty""
The set-up seems harmless and familiar: a grandmother offers to tell her young, apparently frightened granddaughter a bedtime story. However, we realize this grandma isn't the kind who would make you cookies and tuck you in, but rather implant her fear of aging into the classic fairytale ""Sleeping Beauty"" in a mildly disturbing way. Though it's filled with a few randomly funny moments—the mere fact that mentioning ""Sleeping Beauty"" terrifies the child, the grandma's constant and inappropriate laughter and editing the story as she tells it are just a few of the short film's quirks with perhaps too much energy.
—Katie Foran-McHale
""The Lady and the Reaper""
The influence of Chuck Jones on animation is unparalleled and unmeasurable; his hand can be seen everywhere in modern animation. But some wear that influence on their sleeve more than others, such as Spanish nominee ""The Lady and the Reaper."" The tale features a Looney Toons-style battle between the Grim Reaper trying to take an elderly woman's soul and the egotistical doctor trying to save her. Unfortunately, other than some quirky touches, like the hellhound Cerberus depicted as a poodle, ""Reaper"" lacks much of the charm of Jones' work. Without the emotional resonance of work from Pixar or even Dreamworks, a simple frolicking adventure with a gag or two just isn't enough.
—Todd Stevens
""Logorama""
Three French directors take product placement to unflattering extremes in ""Logorama,"" a hilariously brash allegory on corporate culture.
Set in a world of omnipresent advertising, the film stars the Michelin Men as foul-mouthed cops chasing after Ronald McDonald, a psychopathic killer who's apparently sick of children, particularly Big Boy. If cartoon carnage doesn't send you hurtling to YouTube to find these potentially illegal parodies—where the film is rarely posted long due to the filmmaker's ironic copyright complaints—it also features Director David Fincher as a lewd Pringles Man, an effeminate Mr. Clean and a partially censored Jolly Green Giant.
The film is essentially a basic gangster narrative with some Quentin Tarantino-esque lines between the Michelin mascots, but that's just as well since few will notice more than its dazzling audacity upon first viewing.
—Ryan Hebel
""A Matter of Loaf and Death""
Wallace and his dog, Gromit, are now bakery owners who deliver bread. The companions get tied up with a murder mystery when someone begins to murder all the bakeries in town and it looks like Wallace could be next. It is up to Gromit to save Wallace, who is so in love with his girlfriend, Piella, that he doesn't even realize he's in danger.
Wallace and Gromit are usually favorites and this year is no exception. After the success of the full-length movie ""Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,"" audience expectations are higher than ever for the Nick Parks' series.
— Brandi Stone
LIVE ACTION
""The Door""
""The Door"" achieves a lot of story in a short amount of time by leaving the audience constantly wondering. Why is the protagonist stealing a door from the house he claims to live in? Why would someone be shooting at him to stop him? The small amount of information we have to go on inches the plot forward—in a flashback, a radio blares in Russian to warn ""comrades"" that a serious accident has occurred nearby, and that nothing could be taken with them. A hurried evacuation of families in housecoats with frightened looks of confusion, as they too attempt to figure out what the hell is going on. The mystery unfolds into a sad memory of a tragic event, and the journey makes it all the more emotional and poignant.
—Mark Riechers
""Instead of Abracadabra""
Director and screenwriter Patrik Eklund presents a story of a magician grappling with his skills, parents and love. After his parents forbid him from practicing magic after an incident involving a sword hitting his mother as part of a trick (luckily, with no injuries). The young magician continues to try to prove his worth through practice. His act is generally well received by children, but only after moments of terror when they worry for the safety of an animal used for the trick. Though his parents disapprove of his seemingly juvenile career, they eventually come to terms with his idiosyncrasies as he finds a new romance.
—Katie Foran-McHale
""Kavi""
Set in India, Director Gregg Helvey shows the life of a child slave over a several-day period. Kavi, the child slave, yearns for an education and to play cricket. Instead, he is forced to work at a kiln, making and moving bricks. He is regularly beaten by his superiors, and is ultimately chained to a house as his family is taken away. Though he is eventually rescued, the film shows the horrors of child slavery and offers an alarming statistic concerning worldwide modern-day slavery in the credits.
—Katie Foran-McHale
""The New Tenants""
Dark humor is like dark chocolate, people either love it or find it to be far too bitter. Sprinkled in dashes it can be palatable to most, but ""The New Tenants"" uses it as almost the sole ingredient. Featuring Jamie Harrold and David Rakoff as a gay couple who recently moved into the world's most murderous apartment building, the tenants are forced to deal with an angry cuckolded husband (Vincent D'Onofrio), a mishandled cinnamon buns recipe, a drug dealer looking for some missing heroin (Kevin Corrigan), and a pair of triple homicides, all in twenty minutes. ""The New Tenants"" is darker than a funeral wake, but it's presented with such incredulity that for fans of the macabre should be fully satisfied.
—Todd Stevens
""The Miracle Fish""
A bullied young boy from a poor family gets a blessing in disguise when he receives a flimsy fish with foresight in ""The Miracle Fish.""
Directed by Luke Doolan, this short film picks up when 8-year-old Joe discovers the cheap trinket from his mother can apparently read people's souls. When Joe ends up sick in the school's infirmary, he takes a nap and the film surrenders completely to the surreal. Joe wakes up to a deserted school that fills the remainder of the film with the silent tension of an academic wasteland until its final, appropriately confounding resolution.
—Ryan Hebel
